"At a time when major changes in how we think and live are urgently needed, the Earth Charter challenges us to examine our values and to choose a better way. It calls us to search for common ground in the midst of our diversity and to embrace a new ethical vision that is shared by growing numbers of people in many nations and cultures throughout the world."
Introduction to the Earth Charter
The Call
The impact of these words was not lost on the delegates to our General Assembly in February, 2003. This Assembly endorsed the Earth Charter seeing it as a context out of which we could respond to the question which expressed the theme of our Assembly.
"At this moment in time, to what does the Charity of Christ impel us?"
The endorsement also indicates a solidarity with other Congregations of women religious, in particular the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) which endorsed the Charter at their annual meeting in August 2002.
For more information on the Earth Charter including suggestions for theological education see www.earthcharterusa.org and www.earthcharter.org
The Response
To date the committee charged with organizing the implementation of this Assembly enactment has done the following:
- continuation of education of the committee and our membership in the principles of the Earth Charter
- identification of some of the efforts already in place, (see sections on the website, e.g. "How We Serve," "Ecological/Global Concerns" and "The Charity Family"
- invitation to reflect prayerfully each week on one of the principles of the Earth Charter
Currently our focus is on issues related to water. Efforts in this area are in conjunction with the Sisters of Charity Federation (see Federation website).
In the final analysis the Earth Charter is about change, so clearly expressed in the Preamble to the Earth Charter.
"Fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions and ways of living."
This is the challenge we all face.A Reflection
The Great Work, Thomas Berry
There are cosmological and historical moments of grace as well as religious moments of grace. The present is one of those moments of transformation that can be considered as a cosmological, as well as a historical and a religious moment of graceÉ
So now in this transition period into the twenty-first century, we are experiencing a moment of grace, but a moment in its significance that is different from any previous moment.
